Arcana Castigo

I pity you, mage. Yours' is a skill you have spent a lifetime developing. You may rival the gods themselves.
I pity you because you stare at me in confusion and disbelief. You are still so dependant on your power that even now you desperately try to cast the simplest of spells. You rely on this power too much.
You thought it made you a god? you were wrong...

— Baylim, Judge of Law, addressing his prisoner

The arcane art of negation, Arcana Castigo is an Arcane Genre that focuses on negating and stripping magical energy. This is done in many ways but the effect is the same. A warrior closes his eyes and the spells cast his way seem to bend and twist around him having no effect. A mage mutters a series of mantras and the fires set by an arcane arsonist slowly die down and seem to repair the damage they caused. A judge waves her hand and the criminals before her find they cant even cast a spell in their defense. The art of negation is a rare gift. It is a skill that requires considerable effort, practice, and in many ways sacrifice.

The Philosophy of Negation

Negation is a strange effect that occurs when one cancels the arcane power of another. There are three ways to accomplish this that have been studied and developed over time:

Polar Cancellation

Initially, it was believed that the only way to accomplish this goal was to cast spells that utilize energy that directly opposed the spells that are cast toward you. The energies of fire would be cancelled by water, light with dark, earth with air, death with life and so on. Practitioners would train night and day to build up the reaction time needed to do this in a real fight which leads to the ideologies main faults. The skill and training needed to be able to command so many different forms of Arcane Energy ask far to much of most practitioners. Its near impossible to have the reaction time and arcane talent to be able to counter every spell sent your way. This led many to stray from this ideology in search of more feasible methods. The concept is still taught and considered quite useful by many. This concept however is taught as a tool rather than something practitioners should specialize in.

Negation

Many practitioners believed that using energy in its many forms led to the impossible standards of polar cancellation. The began to research and experiment with other methods of negating arcane effects. This led to the present day concept of negation.
The idea is that one can radiate an aura or create a telepathic barrier around themselves that can deflect or at the very least, decrease the severity of incoming spells. This novel method of telepathy led to further advancement. One can extend the aura or barrier in a radius or even cast it on separate objects. Negation, put simply, allows one to cause change in magical effects in their environment. Powers include both auras and barriers as previously mentioned but as the genre grew, other methods of negation became prominent as practitioners experimented with other arcane manifestations These include practitioners focusing in on magical effects and simply breaking them down before impact or reversing effects of magical energy. The major factor of negation is time. The best among practitioners can completely negate magical effects in the short span of time they have to do so. others can only lower the severity of those effects or build resistance to them. This factor, while greatly diminished, is still a major flaw in the genre. This led to the development of another method of negation that goes hand in hand with what is already established.

by Howard Lyon

Limitations

The art of negation is regulated to some degree. Stripping is only used by the The Judges of Law and Merit and they hold the secret well. Few even desire the genre as it takes so long to master and doesnt work on everything one would call magic.

Mediums, shamans, bards, Oathbound, and Scions are all immune from the effects of stripping, and nullification. General negation however, can effect the abilities they use. Mages and druids are the most susceptible.

Other Methods of Negation

Many have tried other methods of accomplishing negation. Various enchanted items have been developed that perform the same way that a practitioner of Arcana Castigo would.

by chasestone

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane